Monday, 31 May 2010

Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake

Sometimes you need a little bit of extra love.... you need to know that someone is thinking of you.... and be reminded of home with something special.

At the moment I have a son who is doing his GCSEs and another who is away at university with his first year exams looming. I can pamper the one at home with his favourite treats, making the revision a little more bearable. The one away has to make do with a flying visit, dinner out and a package of (mainly chocolate) goodies to aid his long revision sessions.

Nigella Lawson has a recipe for a quadruple chocolate loaf cake in her book 'Feast', it's the perfect cake for those wanting a good fix of chocolatey deliciousness. There's cocoa and dark chocolate in the cake, chocolate syrup to drench the cake and sliced chocolate to top it off.

Try to get the syrup into the holes

A disaster occurred when I was taking the cake out of the oven, I dropped the tin and most of the cake flew out, decorating the floor. But this turned out to be a good thing. Why? Because I had been measuring and baking so many different things that morning I'd forgotten to add the sugar to the cake mixture. Urgh! Thankfully, this cake is super easy to make and the second one came out perfectly.

Obviously I couldn't cut into the cake, but here is one that I made last year, you can see the chocolate syrup running through the cake

Quadruple Chocolate Loaf CakeAdapted from Nigella LawsonNigella's recipe uses a food processor to blitz all the ingredients together, I used a hand-held electric mixer instead. I also melted the chocolate for the main part of the cake.You will need a large loaf tin, mine was 23cm x 14cm, 7cm deep and Nigella uses one that measures 21cm x 11cm and 7.5cm deep.

To top the cake:1 small bar of dark chocolate, cut into slivers - I used milk chocolate

Line the cake tin with non-stick baking parchment and preheat the oven to 170ºC. Melt the chocolate for the cake in a glass bowl either in a microwave or set over a pan of simmering water.

Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream into a large bowl and using an electric hand whisk, start whisking the mixture together. Add the melted chocolate and gradually add the boiling water. Whisk until you have a lovely glossy mixture.

Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and pop it into the oven. Bake for about an hour, it may need more or less time. Check with a metal skewer, insert it into the cake and if it comes out clean it's ready.

While the cake is cooking, put the syrup ingredients into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil for about 5 minutes, you want a reduced liquid, more of a caramelized syrup.

When the cake has cooked, remove it from the tin, keeping the paper on and put it onto a cooling rack. Make some holes in the top of the cake and pour the syrup as evenly as possible over the cake, trying to get it to run into the holes.

When the cake has completely cooled, you can remove the paper and put it onto a serving plate. Slice the small bar of chocolate into slivers and scatter it over the top of the cake before serving.

This is chocolate love four times over Nic... how tragic that one lot fell out, but just as well. I do things like you often! Lucky lad to have such a good mother! That cake is over the top indulgent! xoxoPS The herbs are beginning to sprout finally! Thank you

chocolate-lover's heaven, no doubt about it. in serving myself something like this, i always try to find the piece with the most holes in hopes that it's the most saturated with sweet syrup. :) glad round two worked out for ya!

Delicous cake, Ilove to watch Nigella cooking. So mostly when I watch daughter also will be watching with me and every time when she makes something sweet, daughter say will you make this next time :-)

What a lovely reward for your children after the horrible exams. I sympothise with dropping the cake on the floor - Ive done that. I've also forgotten and the before and wondered why it was baking odly, all was revealed when we tasted the cake!

Yep, I know the multi-tasking and forgetting to put sugar in a cake mix............ Sorry, it does look lovely. Would you consider me your daughter, away at work....who knows, I might get a box of cake in the post too!

I have baked this cake twice already! (what can I say, it's birthday season in our little family) and it came out PERFECT both times! It even gets better after a few days when the syrup has had a chance to slowly seep more evenly through the cake making it sooo moist and thick and slighly chewy and perfect. I love chocolate and I love this chocolate cake!

Goodness, call myself a Nigella fan, I don't think I've ever noticed this in Feast before and I am stunned I have over looked it. It sounds amazing and from all these comments I think you've tickled the fancy of a lot of people!!!

anything that has the words quadruple and chocolate together demand my attention! You did not dissapoint!what an incredible chocolate cake!!I love Nigella she has such passion about eating...Thanks so much for sharing!Dennis

If you bake things this awesomely good and chocolatey then I want to be adopted!! That is some chocolate cake. And easy? I'm pulling my copy of Feast off of the shelf. And happy mom whose sons actually appreciate and accept her baked love. Mine do not!

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